Prelude
by Caitiy
Summary: On a sunny afternoon young Sakura learns things aren't always as they seem.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters contained therein, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto who is kind enough to let fans write fiction. I make no profit from this nor do I intend to.

A/N: Another refugee from The KakaSaku Archives. :-) Just a little bit of fluff I'd completely forgotten about.

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Prelude

Sakura sighed, she was bored, _beyond_ bored. She was supposed to be training, sparring to be exact, but for whatever reason her sensei didn't particularly seem inclined to spar with her. The young kunoichi shot Kakashi a side long glance from her seat on the grass several feet in front of him. He was situated under a large maple tree enjoying the ample shade provided by the thick foliage with his nose, as always, buried deeply into what she suspected was a _very_ naughty orange book.

She sighed again, this time to herself and rearranged her position on the ground so she could see her other two teammates. Naruto and Sasuke were deeply engaged in their _own_ training session seemingly going all out against each other. For a moment she could feel the rush of air forming the back draft of one of Sasuke's fire jutsu. Sakura almost started as she realized how close they had gotten to the tree she was mostly sharing with their sensei. While watching the two of them go at it she couldn't blame her sensei for not wanting to spar with her. _She_ was leagues behind either of _them_ when it came to actual combat skills, never mind _him_ with his own elite jonin status.

Idly Sakura noticed her other two teammates drawing a little closer to their position again – though not close enough for her to actually hear any of the trash talk she knew they were shouting at each other. It was probably better that way. The pink haired girl frowned for a moment wondering just how seriously they could actually hurt each other and just how far the indolent man behind her would let it go before breaking it up. Casually she spared the seemingly lazy man another calculating glance – he was just as he had been a moment before – sitting with his attention apparently completely focused on his little book. The only movement she could discern was the occasional flip of a page, he was otherwise as motionless as a statue.

She opened her mouth to ask if he was even paying attention to their other male teammates, she was already fairly certain that he wasn't paying any attention to _her_ – at least not as much as he was _supposed_ to be as he should have been sparring with her. After a moment's contemplation she thought better of it and shifted herself restlessly into a more comfortable position with her back to her sensei and her eyes focused away from the two furiously fighting teammates. After a while she felt the effects of the noontime heat and sensed herself relaxing a bit to simply bask in the summer sun. She choose to ignore the sounds of her teammates sparring and the fact that she should be doing the same with the slothful man a couple feet behind her who was clearly much more interested in a perverted orange book than in training with her.

Quite suddenly she felt a dizzying rush of movement as the world seemingly slid past her unmoving body. Once she was able to collect her wits she found herself in the _last_ place she would have _ever_ expected to end up – pulled tightly up against her sensei's chest. She struggled a little to no avail; he didn't even move a muscle or choose to acknowledge her presence. As far as she could tell he was seated almost exactly as he had been moments before, her settled comfortably between his two legs with one of his arms wrapped firmly across her chest keeping her in place seemed to be the only difference. Though, the angle of his book was also now slightly different in order to prevent her young eyes from viewing the undoubtedly dirty contents.

Still feeling confused she tried squirming out of his grasp, only to find herself being shifted ever so slightly, raising her line of sight enough to land on the sunny patch of grass where she had been basking only a moment before – or rather the small gently smoking crater that was now occupying the spot she had been until her sensei had chosen to remove her.

He leaned over just enough so that only she would hear his murmured words. "Do you still think that I'm not paying any attention to you?"


End file.
